The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The Roaring Twenties is a term sometimes used to refer to the 1920s, characterizing the decade's distinctive cultural edge in America, Berlin, Paris, London and many other major cities during a period of sustained economic prosperity. Normalcy returned to politics in the wake of the-emotional patriotism during World War I, jazz music blossomed, and the flapper redefined modern womanhood.The nation’s total wealth doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar “consumer society.” Economically, the era saw the large-scale diffusion and use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures, and electricity, unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted for their home team and filled the new cinemas and stadiums. In many major countries women were given the right to vote for the first time. Finally the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ended the era, as the Great Depression set in worldwide, bringing years of worldwide hardship. Another cultural controcersey of the 1920’s was a conflict over the ploace of religion in contemporary society. Fundamentalists insited the Bible was to be interpreted literally. They really opposed the teachings of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution had openly challenged the biblical story of the Creation. In March 1925, the legislature adoped a measure making it illegal for any public school teacher “to teach any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible.” The Tennessee law caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, founded in 1917 to defend pacifists, radicals, and conscientious objectors during World War I. The ACLU decided to...

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...﻿Peyton Propst
Mr. Martin
Final Exam Essay
2 June 2015
Golden Age: RoaringTwenties
The RoaringTwenties was period of continual economic prosperity and the distinguishing artistic edge in cities during the 1920s throughout the United States. For the first time in a long time, Americans lived in cities, rather than on farms. America was turned into a “consumer society” with the Nation’s total wealth more than doubling between 1920 and 1929. There was a rise in wages and real income, easy credit and installment plan buying, and in mass advertisement. Jazz and dance rose in popularity, and the twenties are sometimes known as the Jazz Age because of all of the blues in New Orleans and Memphis, with artists such as Louie Armstrong and George Gershwin. The 1920’s was a time of economic and cultural prosperity which helped the twenties become a Golden Age throughout United States history.
The United States and Canada became more anti-immigration in viewpoint during this period. The American Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration from countries where 2% of the total U.S. population, per the 1890 census, not counting African Americans, were immigrants from that country. The substantial incursion of Europeans that had come to America during the first two decades of the century slowed down. The 1920s brought new styles of music into the typical American culture. Jazz...

...It was called "relief." Franklin Roosevelt'sNewDeal provided relief to millions of Americans who had lost their homes, their jobs, and their hope. Many others felt that the radical new policies of FDR threatened the sanctity of the Constitution and free enterprise. Roosevelt'sNewDeal policies had many critics but among the most vocal were groups like the American Liberty League and powerful Socialists who argued that the NewDeal policies either went too far or not far enough in solving the problems that faced the nation.
Roosevelt's critics came from both ends of the political spectrum. The American Liberty League was an opposing group made up of conservative businessmen and corporate leaders. Believing that the free enterprise system was being attacked, they accused Roosevelt of trying to install a dictatorship in place of the federal government. In an excerpt from a 1935 article in Fortune magazine, the Roosevelt Administration is thought to be a government of men and not laws. The author compares Roosevelt to a dictator and calls his theory of federal administration "menacing and dangerous". Another political cartoon printed in the June 1936 issue of Current History, ridicules the Liberty League as being alarmist in accusing Roosevelt of bringing communism into the country.
Herbert Hoover, a former president, agreed with...

...﻿RoaringTwenties
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The RoaringTwenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America but also in London, Paris and Berlin. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. 'Normalcy' returned to politics in the wake of World War I, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, Art Deco peaked, and finally the Wall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the era, as The Great Depression set in. The era was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching importance, unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.
The social and cultural features known as the RoaringTwenties began in leading metropolitan centers, especially New York, Paris and Berlin, then spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The United States gained dominance in world finance. Thus when Germany could no longer afford war reparations to Britain, France and other Allies, the Americans came up with the Dawes Plan and Wall Street invested heavily in Germany, which repaid its reparations to nations that in turn used the dollars to pay off their war debts to Washington. By the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread. The second half of the...

...﻿The decade immediately following World War I is fondly remembered as “The RoaringTwenties.” It was at a time when the nation was happy, and thankful, to be at peace. It was a time of unprecedented prosperity. Economic growth swept Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar ‘consumer society.’ The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929. Manufacturing rose. People made more money than ever before. It was a new fast living world of luxury where the nation had radios, automobiles, and tickets to the movies. From a cultural and historical perspective, the 1920’s were marked by a deep clash of cultures in economics, politics and social changes. The 1920’s had great cultural and historical significance and gave us while the Flapper, Al Capone, Prohibition, and the mass production of cars. Leisure and pleasure were now prized over hard work and there were various sides in the cultural debate between those who embraced the new changes and looked with hope to the future and those who idealized the past and resisted cultural change.
Prohibition was major and the Temperance Movement tried to limit and/or ban alcohol consumption in as early as the early 19th century, but it was not until the 1920’s that reformers succeeded in passing a constitutional amendment that outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. The passing of national Prohibition created a major cultural clash...

...The RoaringTwenties, most of the things we hear about the twenties are of good, happy times and of advances in technology and medicine. When we picture the twenties, we picture people dancing, listening to jazz and driving Model Ts. Also, in the twenties, the pretty was quite prosperous. But, there was a dark side to the RoaringTwenties. Those years there were some troubling trends and events, which many forget when thinking of that decade; prohibition, organized crime, nativism and the return of the Ku Klux Klan.
Ironically, the twenties are often thought of as a time with careless drinking, when actually, it was illegal in that decade to sell or consume alcohol. On January 16th, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. A ban on the manufacturing and distribution on alcohol was written into the United States Constitution. This ban was called Prohibition. People held mock funerals the day before the amendment came to pass. Some people and businesses even spent the weeks prior to the amend.ent stockpiling liquor.
Prohibition came to be due to almost a century of effort that started with the temperance movement in the early nineteenth century. After the years of the American Revolution, there was a huge increase in drinking and alcohol consumption. Saloons began to pop up everywhere as hard working men tended to escape loneliness and exhaustion by...

...Democratizing Capital talked about the NewDeal in a positive way. It was very candid in the way it resonated its message. It stated that the NewDeal would prevent a future stock market crash and avoid a depression. The stock market crash of 1929 set into motion a series of events that would launch the United States into a fathomless recession. The Great Depression epitomized the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was held accountable for the economic downturn. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The NewDeal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of...

...The Good and Bad of Roosevelt'sNewDeal
The era of the Great Depression was by far the worst shape the United States had ever been in, both economically and physically. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and began to bring relief with his NewDeal. In his first 100 days as President, sixteen pieces of legislation were passed by Congress, the most to be passed in a short amount of time. Roosevelt was re-elected twice, and quickly gained the trust of the American people. Many of the NewDeal policies helped the United States economy greatly, but some did not. One particularly contradictory act was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was later declared unconstitutional by Congress. Many things also stayed very consistent in the NewDeal. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security, since Americans were looking for any help they could get, these acts weren't seen as a detrimental at first. Overall, Roosevelt'sNewDeal was a success, but it also hit its stumbling points.
One of the most contradictory efforts of the NewDeal was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Through the AAA, Roosevelt proposed to pay farmers for cutting back on production or producing nothing at all. It was supposed to help increase farm prices by decreasing the supply....

...until April 1917, the conflict cast a shadow over American society that would take a while to pass. There was a brief economic recession at the start of the 1920s, but, as the decade moved on, the economy boomed and America began the age of consumerism - many Americans bought cars, radios, fridges etc. Major cities such as New York and Chicago grew rapidly and the building of skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931, seemed to show the self-confidence of American society.
Illustration of three 1920s women and a man socialising on a boat
The 1920s were prosperous for some
At the same time, many Americans wanted to enjoy themselves as much as they could by perhaps listening to the new jazz music, or doing the new dances such as the charleston and the black bottom. Crowds flocked to watch film stars like Charlie Chaplin and baseball stars like Babe Ruth. The emphasis on having fun and spending money has led to the 1920s being called the RoaringTwenties.
However, for many Americans, the 1920s was a decade of poverty. Generally, groups such as African-Americans, women and farmers did not enjoy the prosperity of the RoaringTwenties. More than 60 per cent of Americans lived just below the poverty line. Life was particularly hard for African-Americans in the Deep South states where the majority of black people endured a combination of poverty and...